Our Diamond Seyfu steals the show in London while gangsters make off with the rest of the jewels
London Landmarks Half Marathon, Sunday 24th March 2019
Seyfu won the London Landmarks Half Marathon by a country mile on Sunday (probably more) as he finished over 5 mins ahead of the field, with Michele Bucci in second place leading the way for a great day at the office for a bunch of Heathsiders who had decided that one half marathon in this campaign just wasn’t enough!
When our victorious Heathsider broke the tape to claim the win and a course record, a huge jewel heist took place in the Fleet St area, they burrowed into the safe from the shop next door and made off with 30 million pounds worth of diamonds, whilst thousands of unaware runners wearing the London Landmarks’ yellow T-shirts ran past outside!
Close to 13,000 people finished the race and I was test driving my new trainers that I want to wear at the marathon next month. I’ve heard they make you run 4% faster so I thought I’d give them a go. At times I felt like I couldn’t keep up with them, but I dug in and tried to maintain good solid headless chicken pace for as long as possible. It earned me 34th overall and my fastest Half time in 4 years. I saw Ian out on course and we gave each other a Heathside roar as our paths crossed. Annabel was a few minutes back placing 6th Woman for an excellent performance, Filipe Cardoso scalped the 1.40 for the first time for a new PB despite getting stuck in the crowds at the chaotic start. The real winner was our great capital which was swathed in beautiful sunshine all day and it made for excellent running conditions.
The race starts on Pall Mall and finishes just by Downing Street. The course is quite scenic but it doesn’t really leave the centre of town so it’s quite twisty-turny with lots of sections where you have to hairpin back. The last few miles are similar to that of the London Marathon which makes for good fun tearing along the Embankment whilst not feeling quite so awful! As I made for the line I didn’t even notice that I was finishing metres away from Mrs May’s gaff, otherwise I’d have voiced my distain for her rubbish managing of the whole Brexit debacle. I was too busy staring at my watch in disbelief thinking that it was the shoes, and they now give me an advantage - yes I know I need help!
Pos Name Net Time
1 Seyfu Jamaal 01:08:14
2 Michele Bucci 01:14:03
34 James Connell 01:23:48
90 Annabel Litchfield 01:27:59
184 Ian Anderson 01:31:10
392 Lucie Mauger 01:36:39
648 Filipe Cardoso 01:39:49
3223 Steven Jones 02:01:09
Malaga Half Marathon
Meanwhile, in sunny Malaga, Sarah Duke ran the Half Marathon on the same day. She writes:The course ran along the coast for the first half then turning inland and taking a tour of some of the city’s sights before finishing in the centre. I missed my PB by seconds coming in with a chip time of 1:43:48.
World Masters Indoor Championships, Torun, Poland, 24th-30th March
In Poland at the World Indoor Masters, Adrian Essex represented his country and the glorious Heathside at V65 level in the 60m, 200m, 400m, Pentathlon and the 4x200m relay. He performed brilliantly throughout the week producing some very sharp sprints in his heats to show his true class and resulting in him picking up Bronze in the 400m final. It was a very proud moment. In the 4x200 he also represented as Team GB took the Silver and a new National record to boot. Congratulations Adrian, Simply Stunning.
This is a playlist of relevant youtube videos:
Adrian's Results
60m Heat 2 - 8.66 (2nd place)
60m SF2 - 8.66 (6th place)
200m Heat 7 - 28.45 (2nd place)
400m Heat 2 - 64:79 (1st place)
400m FINAL - 65:07 (Bronze Medal)
Pentathlon M65 - 3253 Pts / 5th Place
60m Hurdles 11:50 (1st), 1000m 03:53:34 (3rd), HJ 1m30 (5th), LJ 4m02 (8th), SP5K 8m78 (8th)
Relay - 4 x 200m - 1:51:66 - New National Record (Silver Medal)
SEAA 12 and 6 Stage Road Relay Championships, Milton Keynes, Sunday 24th March
Heathside’s women produced a consistently strong team for the South of England Road Relay championships to take 5th place out of 34 teams. We would have come fourth if not for Josie Hinton’s pesky laces (she had to stop to tie them three times). The course was undulating, twisty-turny and, on the day, cool and a bit windy. The women’s event saw two runners doing the 7.7km leg and four doing the 5.1km leg. We mixed up the order, but the officials generously agreed not to disqualify us. Kelly Thorneycroft started with a strong 18:34 short leg, handing over to Josie, who was the 17th fastest runner on the long leg, out of 65, in 28:40, despite her lacing mishap. Catrin Tyler overtook two runners in a very quick final 200 meters to close in 18:56, followed by Olivia Desborough who managed a 5k PB of 18:31, even though this tricky course was longer than 5k. The injured Rebecca Piggott, in what might well be her final race for a while, finished in 29:01, with 800m specialist Rosa Serafini closing the show in the fastest Heathside short leg of 18:09, the ninth fastest in out of 122.
The men’s A team suffered from the loss of Seyfu, who was busy winning a half marathon, and quite a few others. Still, they managed a credible 30th out of 53 teams. We didn’t have enough runners to make up a full 12-man B team, but seven of us made the effort. Matthew Rallison was our fastest on the long leg in 25:31 (110th out of 295), while Charles Hardy was our second fastest in 25:37 (117th). Andy Barnes, returning from injury, was our fastest on the short leg in 17:18 (141st out of 288). Best of the Bs was Joe Clemoes who did the long leg in 28:51.
A big thanks to Kimon Doulis, our team captain who did a sterling job in rallying the troops and in getting us to Milton Keynes. He also put in the third fastest long leg in 26:38, returning home with a hamstring strain.
Senior Women (27 teams) 7,664m and 5,053m
1st Herne Hill Harriers 2:06:37
5th London Heathside 2:11:51
1 Kelly Thorneycroft 18:34 (7th Place)
2 Josie Hinton 28:40 (10th)
3 Catrin Tyler 18:56 (8th)
4 Olivia Desborough 18:31 (1st)
5 Rebecca Piggott 29:01 (6th)
6 Rosa Serafini 18:09 (5th)
Senior Men (43 teams) Legs 7,664m and 5,053m
1st Aldershot Farnham & District 3:57:06
30th London Heathside "A" 4:28:19
1 Matthew Rallison 25:31 (31st place)
2 Laurie Swan 18:16 (38th)
3 Sion Lewis 27:46 (38th)
4 Jake Spencer 18:13 (38th)
5 Kimon Doulis 26:38 (36th)
6 Andy Barnes 17:18 (36th)
7 Charles Hardy 25:37 (31st)
8 Peter Gould 17:50 (31st)
9 Thomas Clark 26:06 (31st)
10 Thomas Foy 18:19 (30th)
11 Alex Sweet 28:42 (31st)
12 Daniel Johns 18:03 (31st)
Incomplete Team - London Heathside AC "B"
1 Gavin Evans 30:12 (52nd)
2 Kris Milovsorov 19:12 (52nd)
3 Liam Hazelton 30:04 (50th)
4 Tom Bedwell 18:28 (50th)
5 Lenny Martin 30:45 (49th)
6 Adam Mitchell 22:37 (49th)
7 Joseph Clemoes 28:51 (49th)
National Primary School Cross Country Championships, Loughborough, Saturday 23rd March 2019
5 Junior Heathsiders took part in the National Primary Cross Country Championships held at Prestwold Hall nr Loughborough on 23rd March 2019. There were over 2000 runners taking part with competing teams from as far as Cornwall and Cumbria. Although relatively free of mud, the narrow course and tight bends made a fast start imperative to securing a good placing. The best performance was from Ben Redland who despite a cold and being tripped secured 58th place in the Boys U10 Race. It was a great experience for all dealing with long distance travel, the mass starts and race tactics for Championship Cross Country racing.
U10 Girls Race 2.2k (343 Runners)
1st S Quinn (Billingham) 7:27
181st Elkie Baker 9:17
U10 Boys Race 2.2k (313 runners)
1st F Jones (Wolves & Bilston) 7:00
58th Ben Redland 7:54
U11 Boys 2.4k (328 runners)
1st O Ulfig (Wolves & Bilston) 8:01
151st Joel Briars-Coan 9:27
224th Kamran Bakhshi 9:55
U13 Girls 2.8k (181 runners)
1st A Reid (WG&TH) 9:29
176th Amara Odeogberin 12:04
Lee Valley U13/U15 Pentathlon - 24th March 2019
Thomas Wasserman competed in the Lee Valley Pentathlon registering 3 PB's in his 5 events and finishing the 4th U13 Boy with 1084 pts. His High Jump improved his club indoor high jump record set last year by 4cm.
60m Hurdles 11.07 PB
800m 3:06.94 PB
Long Jump 4.00m
High Jump 1.29 PB (new club record)
Shot Put 6.04m
Park Runs 23/24th March
http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2019-3-23
This weekend saw some noteworthy Park Run performances by junior Heathsiders:-
Junior (2,000m)
Priory Park
1st Kamran Bakhshi (JM10) 8:07
Highbury Fields
1st Gregory Berrisford-Sweet (JM11-14) 7:55
Senior (5,000m)
Ally Pally
3rd Jack Davis-Black (JM11-14) 18:13
Hackney Marshes
37th Benjy Bediako (JM10) 19:06 PB and Course Age Record
Finsbury Park
1st Lemi Mideska (JM15-17) 16:57